What I Would Have Done in East Palestine

On Tuesday I visited East Palestine, Ohio, the site of one of the worst environmental disasters in decades, where 38 train cars carrying vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals derailed when a wheel bearing overheated and came off.

I sat down for an exclusive interview on “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” which included five East Palestine residents whose lives were upended by the disaster.

Fox News host MacCallum explained how three days after the derailment, officials made the determination that rather than risk an explosion, they were going to do a controlled burn, a decision that many residents believe was devastating to their health and their property.

During the interview, I told MacCallum, “This [disaster] occurred because of a failure of government. Norfolk Southern was paying its executives 80% of their salary for reducing costs. That’s where their bonuses come from. The company should be criminally charged for what it did to this community. It was an act of theft. It stole the property values. It stole the health. It stole the pursuit of happiness from this wonderful community.”

When asked what I would do if elected president to prevent disasters like this one, I said, “we need to unravel the corporate capture at DOT that allowed this to happen. And right now, President Biden says that he’s going to fix this problem and hold them responsible. Why isn’t the Attorney General investigating this and filing criminal charges?”

“This whole town is a crime scene,” I continued. “What I would love to see President Biden say is, ‘This happened because of a failure of government. This happened because these agencies are captured, they’re corrupt, and I’m not going to tolerate it anymore. I’m going to expose and fire the people who are not doing the proper testing. I’m going to prosecute the people who are responsible at the outset.’ Instead of a vague promise that ‘We’re going to take care of everybody.’”

Today my campaign released a video, “What I Would Do in East Palestine,” explaining in more detail what I would have done if this disaster happened on my watch.

I would have made Norfolk Southern pay to move the entire town to a safe location, restore every home and every business, and then spend the next 50 years, if necessary, cleaning every molecule of dioxin out of the area. A single molecule of dioxin can cause cancer, birth defects, and other serious health conditions. If the executives of Norfolk Southern want dioxin in their own yards, they should put it there themselves. But they need to clean up every molecule they put in East Palestine.

As for all the government officials who lied to the public, they would be investigated by the Department of Justice. I would hold corrupt corporate officials and government officials accountable, both civilly and criminally.

That is how, as President, I will keep Americans safe from this kind of preventable disaster.